Hola all kiters in Auckland, (nothing against the rest of you, but as you will see this is about them/us) Once again this month in Kitesurf mag (as in almost every other mag before this there is an editorial regarding the "experienced" versus Novice debacle. Everyone falls, it seems, in these demographics.He mentions words like "welcome" and "safety" etc.These are the 2 biggest topics of discussion it seems in the sport.As far as the beginners go, well why welcome guys from other countries, but not the future of the sport from your own neighbourhood?make it worth their trip to the beach in what is already a stressed filled time with a dangerous sport, and even advise them if you so feel.
Secondly, in the danger part of it I have seen on at least 3 occasions some guys racing the inflatible at Orewa beach club(you are faster, well done) when they try to discourage kiting between the kids practicing late afternoon.These guys will be responsible in making a reality to the very verbal threat from Park rangers to Shakespeare and Orewa being closed to us should even one bather get injured by a kiter.. Where will you go to race a 5hp inflatable then? or impress a 6 year old?

hi rush ,im not sur wat ur saying,wat mag, wat iinflatable. 8)

i think someone is implying that kiting is gonna get banned from Orewa and Shakers if any more incidents with kites occur at those spots. I'm sure the guys who use those spots know what that means... so the balls in your court northerners. I personally would never go to those spots during summertime anyway, it's so freakin crowded up there. Do we want Orewa to go the way of Bondi cos brainless wonders kited there in a scorchin summers day and 5 knots of wind surrounded by naked kids and bald fat men (some of them are probably naked too). Pleese i'm sure there are better places to kite in hot summers days than Orewa and Shakers.

Let's not ruin our winter SW and strong NE sessions at these spots just because we can't be bothered driving to get some real wind during the summertime.

My brother Thrasher
I too read the editorial in Wind and Kite, a fine publication it was too. I felt our very tall brother showed real sense of awareness by not exploiting the dangers of the sport in light of the recent death. I expected the normal vulture like attribute associated with the press. We kiteboarders are very accepting of those who wish to learn, in a pervious existence as a surfer dude the grommets were given little respect and even less room.

As my dearly beloved would say- 'get not the hump' with those who race the inflatable and as our brother Shaan has said on many occasions the big guy at Orewa who races in the shallows deserves to get the bash if only there was someone bigger than him!

for the first time in my life i actually (partly) agree with thrasher. locals only at orewa and shakers!

this means if you don't pay rates to the rodney district council you should hereby follow lee's time honoured directions and F%#K off townies!

i live within 10 minutes of both of these spots, pay outrageous rates to maintain them, have been kiting there for five years and am beginning to get wound up when i can't even get a park, let alone tweak a jump every now and again for fear of wiping out the future of the sport in one hit.

i admit a week ago i was preaching foreshore rights for all for sure bro, but now if lee sees fit, i hereby offer myself as his deputy to clear his beaches of the infidels before rush bans us all.

if you feel victimised by this arrangement, i offer you my garden shed as a bach, which you are welcome to rent for the summer thus getting around the locals only clause.

* before anyone gets too excited about reciprocal bans, i take this opportunity to assert my customary rights as one of the oldest tribesmen who have been getting dragged around various other beaches too numerous to list since the dawn of time. if it comes to it though, i will trade privileges at all other locations for shakers, orewa and muriwai (also rodney district).

how does the rest of the northern alliance feel?

OBK i'm assumin lives near the land of the most holy of holies (anabatic)which means Osama is in the northern alliance? wow shit DOES happen, Hazel must love the grass up there.

As for us teleban out east and south of the Kyber pass we have had no trouble at all with threatened bans and council action (oh apart from a few stray cruise missiles cutting power to Eastern Beach back at the dawn of time).

This little arrangment.. is it just for the summer or does it apply all year round. Shakers as everyone knows goes off during the winter and with the lack of others on the beach I'm sure that summer is probably the only time where the shit hits the fan up there.

I fully in agreement with Shaan in the fact that these spots when going off (Shakers during winter is definately no exception) are very crowded... a lot of the time it's virtually impossible to pull moves off cos of fear of collision. I'm sure we can all sort this out before the authorities do. We are very lucky in NZ to have no bans in place at the mo especially reading all the stuff on kiteforum.com about bans in places like Sydney and parts of the US. I'm all in favour of keepin it that way too... and i'm sure you guys are as well.

but summer has just started,there are still more kiters then swimmers and whos gonna be at sunin themselvs with 20 kts and showers,its all about timing,not spelling thank christ, plus look at all your options and discover afew of the hundreds of spots u could go. 8)

yes there are shiteloads of beaches in and around the auckland area which makes it even more crazy to bunch up at 2 or 3 main haunts. in 20 knots and showers Orewa and Shakers work bloody marvellous and in those conditions the beaches belong to us as no-one else is there. The main problem comes during summer with the lack of isobars and fronts from the roarin forties (they are rare as tits on a bull during most ak summers generally speaking - although El Nino may bless us this time round).

There are plenty of uncrowded places to kite in auckland during the hot sea breeze days of summer but Orewa and Shakers are best left to the conditions that johnnie mentioned. Out Eastside eastern beach is the same, us ESSK boys spent many a day a couple of summers ago pissed off at Eastern with the jumbo kites pumped up waitin for the breeze to get up and all that came was shitloads of families that took up valuable space. Thank god some of us did some searchin and have found some bloody good spots that are uncrowded and get way better breeze during the high pressure summer days.

....or we could all head down to Colac Bay

Yeah the peak of summer around Dec/Jan is sucky for kiting unless its real windy, or raining a bit... hanging around waiting for the magic 10 knots...
Better to pull the barbie out of the car and have a cookup...

Great idea! I think the BBQ is still in the truck from last Summer

Where an When??